First outdoor ride and What gives BAA?

Well Thursday I had an odd day off as part of my quarterly schedule. This week I was off Thursday, working Friday and Saturday and then off Sunday to go back in on Monday. But my quirky hours aside Thursday proved to be a good day to be out of the office. There were clear skies, temperatures hovering around 70 and a bike with a brand new chain and cassette chilling in the garage, my plan for the day was clear. I was riding and it was not going to be a trainer session. I spent about 20 minutes in the morning digging the end of one of my draw strings out of the waist band of my tri shorts, then packed The Bitch Stomper into my Subaru and made the now much shorter ride from Waterbury out to Middlebury to do some loops of the Pat Griskus Tri course. While part of me wanted to be adventurous and go and do my 50 mile Quassy to Waramaug route, I hadn't ridden outdoors in nearly six months and after this years brutal winter the roads were going to be pitted and most likely sand covered, so I stuck to the easy 10 mile loop through some "gentle rolling hills" and farm land. The first mile I was greeted by something that seemed missing on the trainer: a crosswind while going down hill at 30 mph no less. For a second I had to relearn how to handle a bike, as I felt the rear wheel going a little sideways and my bike being pushed to the right, just tried to go with it pushing left just enough to keep the Stomper from going off the road. The roads weren't too bad, there were only two rough spots, the bottom of the "s" curve and the right hander on to Tomilson road still had some grit which required me to coast at a lower speed than normal, but for the most part things went pretty smooth. The sufferfest spin Dvd's really helped this winter in that I focused more on climbing with a strong cadence rather than mashing heavy gears and I noticed that I was able to hold a larger gear than last season on the final climb at mile nine and I didn't need to get out of the saddle. Overall my speed wasn't too far off from normal either I averaged 16.2 mph for 20 miles. Not bad for sitting on an exercise bike all winter. I decided that since it was a georgous day to tack on a nice 8 mile run as a brick. My legs felt a little heavy as I tackled the opening 8 miles of the Rev3 Half run course. By the time I hit the dirt road portion of White Deer Rocks my legs had found their stride granted they still felt a little tight. I know if I want to do Rev3 and if I want to do well I'm going to need to work on running after hard climbing rides. All in all the run didn't go to badly as I popped my usual day dream of one day winning Kona and amuzed myself with the idea of one day being able to race pro. Ok yes I know that reallistically that neither may never happen but if it gives me the strength to push a little harder on a long training run then damn it I'm not going to knock it. And my time for the run was 1:12, not Crowie killing fast but good for the first brick of the season. And speaking of running, the Boston Marathon is coming up on Monday. So good luck to Mary the Iron Matron in the Patriots' Day classsic, and while I'm on the note of the Boston Marathon, what gives with the new qualifying standard? I had been surfing the HEAT forum and heard that the Boston Athletic Association ( BAA) had just lowered the time standards for the 2013 running of the Boston Marathon and put in bonuses for faster runners in 2012 ( ie the faster you run the earlier you get to register.) I'm not really opposed to the fast kids getting to sign up first, that's fair because hey if you run a 2:12 marathon you should be running in Boston, but did they have to make the time standard for guys under 35 3:05, I mean 3:10 was just starting to seem within grasp. Hell my girlfriend's mom even works in Hopkinton and she lives like 2 seconds away so I will even have a place to crash when I eventually qualify. If my Kona dream fell through this year I would try making a good attempt at a Beantown slot at the Hartford Marathon, but now it seems like that I might have to start training with Ryan Hall to even have a prayer at running Boston before I turn 35, granted even 3:05 doesn't sound that bad, but that's still 16 minutes I have to drop from my current PR but now it has to be 3:05:00 or under you don't even get the 59 seconds you used to. I mean I know it's Boston and it's a big deal but come on BAA , I think us New Englanders should get a break, I mean it's not like we're in Kenya or Cali where we have beautiful 50+ degree weather and mountains to train in all winter to prep for our qualifier and then the race, I think a New England winter is worth an extra 5 minutes because otherwise all your going to have is a bunch of college track kids, Kenyans, Ethiopians, and dudes from Cali towing the line in Boston, and I mean come on the Californians have the Frisco, Big Sur and LA marathons let us have NYC and Boston...please, pretty please? Well that's my two cents, happy training all R.D.

Providence 70.3 The quick and painless.

Well guys I finished in 5:03:08 good enough for 21st in my age group out of about 100 competitiors. I'll give all the details in a later post. Also to answer the burning question I'm not going to Kona in 2009. My heart sank at roll down when 3rd place turned down Clearwater and eagerly stood up to claim the last remaining Kona slot. Part of me is thinking this is a dream I'm going to put in moth balls for 2010. Focus more on my running and try to achieve the goal most New England sports nuts focus on : The BAA Boston Marathon. Granted part of that to me seems like a hollow challenge but it seems more straight forward put down a 3:10 marathon go to Boston. It's put up or shut up and all on the athlete's shoulders instead of on who shows up, who declines this that and the other thing, in essence it's less drama. Also it's less of a burden on the check book...early bird registration to a marathon is only $60 compared to $245 for a 70.3 or a $500 tab for an M-dot. Don't get me wrong I'm still going to do a few tris next season, but maybe a back to the minors approach is in order. Do a couple of independent halves ( Patriot, Nutmegman?, Firman?) A few sprints and a Oly...granted I tend to like the long haul better....essentially I don't know what 2010 holds and I still have a couple of races I need to take care of in 2009.

In essence I have no clue where to go from here...but I have 2 races and a couple of months to figure it out.

Alright that's it from me I've got to go stretch my aching quads.
R.D.

Boston....

Well Today is Patriots' Day in Mass. and as usual the world's fastest marathoners will embark on a 26.2 mile pilgrimage from Hopkington to the Center of the "City on a Hill." Along the way there will be epic duels and heartbreaking hill, screaming sorority girls, some slack jawed gawkers leaving a Red Sox game, most likely moaning that these freaking runners take too damn long, and why couldn't they take up a real sport like say , Baseball, for instance. Growing up as a runner in New England this is the one race you have burned into your mind from an early age. You hear the stories about people like Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit, Rodgers Rop,Alberto Salazar the big names of endurance running have made their mark here. Today I know a couple of guys running this thing and hopefully one day have the pleasure or pinning a bib number to my chest and engaging in this thing...but for today...God's Speed Cranky Runner.

Edit # 1: Cranky was through 5k @23:38 on pace for a sub 3:20 marathon! Sorry my math was wrong on the first go round.

Edit# 2 Cranky's through 10k on 3:17 marathon pace.

Edit #3 At 15k Cranky has done 1:10:36
On the elite side of the race a couple of Kenyans have tried to break but Ryan Hall of the US has been hanging tight all day.

Edit #4 Cranky's through 20k...aww screw this race traking on my blog go to the Boton marathon website and use the athlete tracker also watch this thing both the elite races are tight.

Edit #5 Cranky finished in a 3:28...I'm looking forward to his race report. Hopefully one day I'll have my own tale of Boston agony...um... glory to post up here.

Rhode Trip

Yesterday, I made my well anticipated road trip to Newport, home of Salve Regina University (5 to 1 girl to guy ratio....why didn't I go here again?) and my sister Melissa who is an undergrad at said university. I woke up after a semi-restless night on Saturday....probably from one too many hot dogs @ the HEAT picnic. I made my way down I-95 North and after an NDE outside of Groton involving a big rig on its way to Mohegan cutting me off as I attempted to pass and the guy behind me ducking right just as I prepared to..it ended up with me driving in my own lane for a few tense moments. Then there was grandma going to drop her granddaughter's Jetta off a URI nothing is more painful than going down a backcountry road I usually take at say... double the posted speed limit..@ 25 MPH...Road Rage Building! Well all my travel escapades aside I finally made it to Newport and decided to reward my aching legs with a 6-7 mile ( 10-12k ) run.

I started off on the cliff walk hooked up with two faster runners for a minute then got dropped, but decided to keep following the cliff walk to the beach. Now maybe it's just me but has anyone noticed that the salty air off the water tends to dehydrate you. Anyway everybody and their brother, mother, and uncle fester were out walking about...I felt bad having to dart around or call out "excuse me ...on your left" but things got a little less congested as I hit the beach and had a Chariots of Fire moment, running along the sand...I saw some chick in front of me running barefoot, now that's bad ass. Anyhoo, I ended up having to cross in front of a busy traffic island in Middletown, then another junction between RI 138 and RI 214 about a half mile up the road. Then to my surprise I foundout there actually are hills in Newport as I began to climb through this residential neighborhood. I asked some dude on his bike if this road would get me back to the center of town..he told me to take a right at the stop sign at the top of the hill and follow the road until it ends. Easy enough. The road ended at a little park, I saw the main road not too far off, but asked some woman walking her dog for extra directions, " Yeah you take a left up ahead and it'll spit you out at the cliff walk then you just follow that to Salve." I shot out onto some flat little side street and got spit out at a busy 4 lane medianed drag standing between me and the beach. After a few kind motorists let me through I began my bobbing and weaving through the sea of walkers, joggers, yuppies with strollers, a wedding party, and dudes just standing there and made it back to my car. Total run time 1:00.48, for all the waiting for traffic, and deft maneuvering I'll take it.

After calling Melissa and trying to figure out the directions to her place, I picked up Chrissy ( who was doing a college visit, she's getting so big so fast...tear..sniff.) It was off to IHOP with Chrissy, Liss, and Liss's roomates, then walmart, then a quick tour of then the shops of Newport, then the beach, then back home....all in all it was a pretty good day.

Today, not much on tap, my knee's acting up a little after 2 straight days of trail/sand running I'm giving them a break....also I need to type out at least 8 pages of my paper for the rough draft, so that will consume my afternoon, I might give the bike some love but it's doubtful, but I will hit the pool at 8-8:30ish and get 4000 yds. in.

Well that's all for me today. Oh and bleated good luck to Speed Racer and Cranky Runner running some little rink a dink road race in Massachusetts....at this point they're probably just at 20 mile mark .

The road worn wonderer
R.D.